The War on Talent: Examining Job Seekers' Environmental Values to Increase Job Attraction towards Socially Responsible Organizations

Abstract

Organizations increasingly engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by conducting business in ways that respect the social- and natural environment. When CSR engagement is perceived as sincere, it can serve as a strong tool to attract prospective employees (Crumpacker and Crumpacker, 2007; Kim & Park, 2011; Kumari et al., 2020). This study examines whether this positive effect especially holds for people who care deeply about the environment. Given that environmentally conscious individuals value the preservation of natural resources, they are likely to be attracted to organizations whose CSR commitment comes across as sincere. With an experimental between-subject design we examined whether environmentally conscious individuals, in particular, are receptive to the sincerity of CSR statements. Participants were asked to fill out a survey during which CSR engagement was manipulated to evoke variety in perceived CSR sincerity. Surprisingly, environmental consciousness did not increase job attraction towards socially responsible organizations. Thus, more research is needed to confirm the important role of individual environmental values in considering new job positions.